Blogger: A Review

A blog is a medium by which you can digitally share text, graphics, and photos on the Internet, and is also a way to connect with your online readers through the use of different interactive features. A blog can be a journal, a place for sharing your poems, a parenting guide, a technology resource, a buyer's guide, or anything else you can think of. The only limit is your imagination.

There are many choices when it comes to blogging software, but for the novice all the way to the expert, Blogger offers everything you could need, and more. In their own words, the creators of Blogger are "focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organizing the world's information from the personal perspective." With 10 years under their belt, they have plenty of experience in doing so.

Blogger began as an Internet start-up during the dot-com craze in 1999 and then was bought by Google in 2003. Since then they have consistently improved and updated the product, offering consumers more and more options and flexibility with how they publish and with how the finished product looks. Technology has been so seamlessly integrated into the product that you can easily publish a blog entry now right from your mobile device - no computer necessary.

Features

The software features an easy-to-use online interface (no download required) and push-button publishing. You write it, you hit "Publish Post" and you're done. It's so easy a caveman could do it.

You can customize the look and feel of your blog through available templates, and you can control how your text displays through the use of the built-in editor or have direct control by using the HTML editor. You can add pictures and videos quickly and easily, and you can have the blog hosted for free on Blog*Spot or you can use it with your own domain name.

Every photo you upload to your blog will automatically be stored in an online photo album (located at http://picasaweb.google.com), making the storage and retrieval of your pictures a snap. And speaking of uploading photos, Blogger takes all the difficulty out of it by processing your photo for you when it's uploaded. No more re-sizing or having to upload it to the Internet first - Blogger does all the hard work for you. You also have the option of creating a slideshow of your images. All you have to do is upload the pictures and then Blogger does the rest.

What You Will Like

Above all else, Blogger's best feature is that it's easy to use. The functionality is pretty similar to what you can get with virtually any blogging software, but the difference is how easy it is to actually use it. Coming from a WordPress background myself, I can confidently say that Blogger makes every other blogging software look like rocket science, with Blogger simply being a walk in the park.

Another great thing about Blogger is that everything is organized intelligently, with quick access available to the most used features from its "Dashboard" page (the initial page when you first log in). It shows you all your blogs in one place and gives you the ability to add or edit a post on any of them without having to go to the actual blog first. The Dashboard page helps you get to where you want to be in the shortest amount of steps.

You will notice that two of the most pronounced features of the Blogger software are big buttons (with big text) and lots of color. These two simple things are what make Blogger so user-friendly, because like-type things are organized by colors and because it's easy to find and read the big buttons.

Here are some other things you'll like about Blogger:

• It's painless to set up your account, and although you can customize everything, it's not required. The default settings will take good care of you until you're ready to start exploring later on.
• It's free. There are no hosting costs (even for custom domains), and no monthly fees.
• It's all online; no download required.
• It is super easy to use - not only for text, but for photos and videos too.
• It has an autosave feature, so you never have to worry about losing your masterpiece if the electricity goes out.
• It has a built-in spell-check feature. Thnk gudnes!
• It allows you to post via email, from your cell phone, from your iGoogle homepage, or from any mobile device. You can also publish directly from Google Docs and from Windows Live Writer.
• It allows you to easily monetize your blog through the use of Google AdSense targeted advertising.
• It provides easy access to a wide variety of layout templates so you can customize the look and feel of your online space.
• It provides an easy way of connecting with your readers through comments, reciprocal links, tracking "followers," and it gives readers the ability to post their "reactions" to your content.
• It provides instant interactivity through polls and comments, making your users feel a part of your site and its content.
• It allows you to control your privacy by letting you choose if you want your blog searchable or non-searchable, gives you the ability to make your blog completely private by making it password-protected, and it does not require your real name to be posted on your blog. You have complete control over what information is displayed.
• It allows you to give access to other uses for group blogging projects (multiple authors with individual access on a single blog).
• It allows you to control how easily a user can leave a comment on your blog, which allows you to control spam. You can set it to require word-verification each time someone leaves a comment, you can set it so that only members can post comments, and you can set it so every comment must be moderated before it's published. Again, you have complete control over what is published on your blog.
• It gives you the ability for complete customization. You can choose existing Blogger templates, modify an existing template, upload your own programmed layout, or import a template from an outside source.

What You Won't Like

Although Blogger has a lot of wonderful features, there are still some areas where it can improve. One of these areas is email notifications. Blogger allows you to plug in an email address so you can receive an email each time someone posts a comment on your blog, but it is completely unreliable. Out of 10 comments, you might be notified about one of them (if you're lucky).

Another negative is that Blogger is set up for ease of use - which is great if all you want are the default settings - but its feature for editing your post beyond the basic default is cumbersome and frustrating, to say the least. For instance, when you upload a picture in Blogger it will always post it at the top of your blog post. You can also choose to have it inline with your text on the right or left, but either way it's at the top. There are many times when you want your photos to be spaced out within a post so that they are tied with specific portions of your text. In order to do this you will have to edit the HTML and if you're not careful you can mess the whole thing up. It would be great if it would instead insert the picture based on where your cursor was in the post.

And finally, Blogger offers the ability to write a blog post and publish it at a later date, but (just like its notification system when someone posts a comment) it's completely unreliable. If you were to take the time to write up seven separate blog posts and set them to publish on consecutive dates while you were away on vacation, you'd probably come home to find them still sitting in your "Draft" folder.

Recommendation

With many people now switching gears from blogging to Facebook and Twitter, a new blog started today doesn't stand much of a chance of still being around a month from now. In fact, Bruce Arnold from caslon.com.au compared the average lifespan of a blog with that of a fruitfly. Just like with weight-loss plans, people start out with high hopes and lots of motivation and then lose it fast once their plan becomes a hassle and is no longer "new."

For the best chance of successfully starting and keeping a blog (hopefully for longer than a few generations of fruitflies), you need software that is fun and easy to use. Despite any negatives, Blogger is the blogging software of choice, hands-down. It offers you all the conveniences you want with none of the hassle - and all at a price you can afford ($0). You will love how easy it is to set up your first blog, and how quickly you'll be able to post your first post. In fact, it's so easy to use that it actually makes it fun to use.

Although you have many options to choose from with blogging software, you can't go wrong with Blogger as your publisher.

https://www.blogger.com/start